MEDIA ROOTS – Paul Rockwood Jr. was a weather forecaster in King Salmon, Alaska who became highly critical of US foreign policy in a post-9/11 world. During his quest to understand the motive behind 9/11, he was drawn to the Islam religion and eventually converted.
At the mosque he attended, he was approached by an undercover FBI operative who eagerly commiserated with Rockwood about his views on terrorism. Over time, the informant manipulated Rockwood’s frustration and demanded that he take it one step further by providing him with an “assassination list” of those responsible for war atrocities perpetrated by the US in exchange for a sum of $8,000. With a baby on the way and little financial stability, Rockwood took the bait and now faces an eight year prison sentence for charges of terrorism and perjury.
Rockwood is now just another casualty of the War on Terror’s domestic front, exemplifying the lengths at which the FBI will go to make their case for combating terrorism on US soil. It is immoral at best, and an enormous waste of US taxpayer resources.
The FBI’s methods of entrapment eerily mirrors those used by the recruiters of the very suicide bombers the War on Terror is waged against. When the FBI’s plans of entrapment don’t backfire, the agency preys upon the emotionally deranged or weak, financially down and out members of society and facilitates them to carry out crimes in exchange for financial compensation.
Abby
ALASKA DISPATCH –A little more than a year ago, he was a weather forecaster at a remote outpost in King Salmon, Alaska, population 442. He and his wife — he with his close-trimmed red beard and shy smile, she with her rosebud cheeks and sweet English accent — lived in a two-story frame house strewn with toys. They were popular dinner companions and regulars at community theater productions.
Now Paul Rockwood Jr. is a convicted terrorist, serving eight years in a
federal prison. His wife, Nadia, is exiled on probation in England
after her own criminal conviction. Since their arrest in 2010 — accused
by the FBI
of drafting and delivering a list of targets for terrorist attacks —
friends and neighbors have been left in confusion, wondering how the
nice young couple could have turned into the terrorists next door.
The possible answer, provided in Rockwood’s first interview since his
arrest, opens a window on one man’s uncertain spiritual journey and
radicalization after the Sept. 11 attacks. It also offers a look at the
government’s increasingly deep dragnet for suspected domestic
terrorists.
To federal authorities, Rockwood, 36, is a man who turned from hard-partying bartender and ex-Navy seaman to Muslim militant committed to killing fellow Americans.
To Rockwood, the plot involving targeted assassinations and bombs was a
“pure fantasy” created by a government agent he thought was his
friend, a common refrain in the nation’s burgeoning number of
“home-grown” terrorism plots prosecuted since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Rockwood concedes that he drew up a list of people. He thought they should be punished.
“But … it was all talk,” Rockwood said in a small interview room at
the correctional facility he has called home since July 2010.
Read more about Former Weatherman to Accused Terrorist.
© 2011 Alaksa Dispatch
Photo by Flickr user Dnewman8
